


It's a Wonderful Life

by belovedstill



Series: Own Prompt Challenge [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, Growing Old, Growing Old Together, Original Character(s), domestic!SamJess, married!SamJess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-27
Updated: 2014-06-27
Packaged: 2018-02-06 10:45:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1855222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belovedstill/pseuds/belovedstill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finding the first gray hair turns out to be a bit more life changing than expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's a Wonderful Life

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: _growing old together_

“Look.”

Sam glanced up from the research on his recent case, only to lower his eyes to his book again, where a single silver thread just fell down onto one of the pages. He frowned and took it between his fingers to inspect it a bit closer.

“What is it?”

“A gray hair,” Jess said with a sigh, sitting down on the chair next to him. Her expression didn't mean any good news.

“Oh.” The man nodded and, despite himself, he looked at the text in his book again. He had to find something that would prove that his client was innocent...

“It's _my_ gray hair,” Jess accented, letting her tone get a little louder.

“It looks more like blonde.”

“It's gray.”

Sam let out a sigh and bookmarked the place where he was reading. He wouldn't get much work done now when his girlfriend seemed to be upset. Whenever she acted like that (which was surprisingly rarely), she definitely needed his full attention.

“Jess,” he said softly, taking off his reading glasses to show her that he was all hers now. “One hair doesn't mean a thing.”

“But it does,” she countered immediately. Her eyebrows bowed under the worry, bringing the look of utter sadness on her face. Sam had seen the expression on the Moore only once in his life, when Dean had taken him from Stanford to go and find their father (the police in another state got to John sooner and so the boys pulled him out of jail and took him home. They had had a very serious conversation that night). Dean dropped Sam back two days later than he had originally promised the girl to come back, and so she, the silly thing, thought that Sam had left her to never return.

“It does,” she repeated quietly. “It means I'm growing ol—”

 _Oh..._ “Up,” Sam cut in quickly. He knew where the conversation was heading and he didn't want the blonde in front of him worry about it. “It means you're growing up.”

Jess rolled her eyes in an exasperated manner. “I _am_ grown-up. I don't want to be grown- _old_.”

“Honey...”

The girl shook her head. “I've had plans. So many plans,” she said wistfully, looking at the fragile thread. She _did_ have plans; had always had them: school plans, work plans, holiday, family... Some of them had worked, some were only half-fulfilled, some were yet to happen. “What if I won't have time to attain any of them?”

“Jess.” Sam reached for her hands and took them into his own. “Hey, look at me... I promise, it's just one hair. You have a long life ahead of you.”

“What if I don't? And... What if there's more? What if I'll find another one tomorrow and then another two the day after that? Brady said—”

“Brady?” Sam snorted. “You're listening to _him_?”

“—well, he said that he knows a guy who's friend's brother's girlfriend became completely gray-haired even before she graduated college.”

Sam raised one eyebrow and shook his head. “Sweetheart, that's a long chain of people. You know what we do with long chains?”

“We don't believe them,” Jess mumbled. Sam nodded. “Unless they're true! How can you know it's not true? Can you imagine this poor girl's life? She... She must have been so scared. She was so young, right? She must have been afraid that her boyfriend would leave her because men don't think gray hair is very attractive...”

Now Sam was really getting worried. Something was seriously wrong.

“Jess?” Sam got up from his chair and knelt down in front of the woman who now had tears in her eyes, for God's sake. She only shook her head and covered her lips, snuffling. “Jess...” Sam brought her hands away from her face and kissed them both, never looking away from her eyes. “Baby... is it all about this? I love you. You are beautiful—you will always be, to me. Do you hear me?”

“No,” she mumbled, making Sam chuckle.

“You do,” he said with a fond smile. He looked down at their joined hands and caressed the smaller fingers, stroking the skin spread from one knuckle to the other. Jess smiled and snuffled again when the man looked up into her eyes once more. “You know what? Hold on.”

The blonde frowned and followed the man with her eyes when he got up to his feet. Sam could see the question written all over her face.

“You can use some cocoa, to cheer you up.”

The girl licked her lips. Oh, she craved some and she hadn't even noticed earlier. “Please.”

Jess had her clothed cup full of the sweet, steaming beverage between her hands ten minutes later. She was sitting with Sam on their bed, leaning back against the headboard, with her head on the man's shoulder. Sam knew what she needed, the thought finally reached her mind, making her feel so much better. However, she was still afraid that she would lose him one day.

“Are you here?” Sam murmured softly against her hair, kissing it. She smiled when she felt his warm breath over the place, and nodded. “Good. Because I have something to tell you.”

Jess sighed and closed her eyes. “I know,” she said. “You told me that already. Just one gray hair.”

Sam moved his head away. It made the blonde look up at him, and she couldn't hide the small, a little awkward smile on her lips.

“No.” Sam swallowed on air and took a deep breath that was supposed to give him some courage. “I want that hair. I love it,” he said, briefly looking to his side where his hand reached under his pillow. The atmosphere changed in the very same second, adding tension and nervous anticipation. None of it helped with what Sam was going to do. What did the trick, though, was the moment his eyes met Jess' again, warm, wide-opened and surprised. “Jess,” he heard his voice curl around the words, not even knowing where they were coming from. “Honey...”

The woman took a shaky breath in, her eyes moving downwards towards the small shiny, silky box. The moment her mind connected the facts, she whimpered and covered her lips with one of her hands.

“I—I want to see every and each one of your hair turn gray, with me by your side,” Sam said quickly. Out of nerves, he only now noticed that he hadn't opened the box yet. There was no doubt what were his intentions now, but he still rushed to present the engagement ring to Jess. He had bought it ages ago, when he'd won his first case, and he had been keeping it hidden, waiting for the right moment. He'd always thought that he would have done it in a fancy restaurant, getting down on one knee in the light of candles, dressed in a suit. Now, looking into the only woman's eyes – the only ones that mattered to him – he knew there wasn't going to be a moment more perfect than this one, with them in their bed, drinking hot cocoa, wearing clothes that were comfortable and marked by Jess' dried paints.

“Sam,” Jessica whispered from underneath her fingers, tears shining in her eyes the moment she saw the ring. The simple, tiny green stone blinked up at her, finally uncovered from her sight.

“Please, let me. Let me grow old with you, Jess...”

In one moment, Sam was strangely afraid that his partner was going to say “no”, despite all the years they had spend close to each other.

But then Jess looked up at him again, snuffled – with a chuckle this time – and said in a voice filled with emotion, “Let's grow old together.”

The ring fit on her finger perfectly. It washed all the worries of the future away.

 

Eight months later, their apartment's walls echoed with a cry of an infant, woken in the middle of the night. Jess was still tired because of the birth and was told to rest for the next two days, at least.

Sam was freaking out every time he needed to take their baby girl – Mary – into his arms. He wasn't a slip of a boy and the thought of hurting his little darling terrified him. Usually, Mary just needed to eat or have herself cleaned, but this time she just couldn't sleep.

“Sam?” Jess called, her voice still coloured by sleepiness. “Is she okay?”

“Yes, yes I got her.” The man adjusted the baby in the crib of his arms as delicately as he could and just stayed like that for a long moment, staring down at the child's eyes. Only after several minutes did he remember any of the birth preparation classes and started to sway, humming to her.

He and Jess had found out about the pregnancy not long after their engagement, and it took two months to put together a wedding, mostly thanks to Jess' mother (bless her heart).

Dean had been grinning so hard when he heard that he was going to be the best man, _and_ an uncle.

 

Some times were much happier than the others – buying Mary her first bike, teaching her how to ride it, seeing the excitement and the huge smile on her face when she first rode a horse... or the curious way in which her eyes followed around a bundle of blankets when it only entered their house.

“Daddy?” She pulled at Sam's trousers, and when it caught his attention, she pointed at her mother with the—thing in her arms. “What is this?”

Sam knelt down next to her after making sure that Jess wouldn't need him at the moment. “Remember when Mommy had a big stomach?”

The girl nodded.

“And what was in her stomach then?”

“A baby,” Mary replied, before frowning. “This is a baby?”

Sam smiled. “Yes. Your little brother. Do you remember what's his name?” He could see the gears in her mind working, trying to find the exact information. When her face lightened with a smile and realisation, he knew she hadn't forgotten.

“Daniel. His name is Daniel.”

“That's my girl.”

 

It was awfully hard to get used to the silence that the three of their kids left behind after moving out. There had been times when the noise of fights would drive Sam crazy because he couldn't focus on his research for work, or it would make Jess hole up in her own art studio, there at home. Now the silence was eating them out, making them want to go insane just to stop worrying about _their little babies' lives_.

Jess was the one doing all the worrying, but whenever Sam pointed it out, she would kindly remind him that he was the one who cried so much at Mary, Daniel and Julia's weddings, turning out to be almost unable to symbolically pass his daughters onto other men's arms.

Sam would kiss his wife silent then, making them both forget for a while about the quietness of the three empty rooms upstairs.

 

“Look.”

Sam glanced up from his book, letting his reading glasses fall to the tip of his nose. He lowered his eyes onto a small, touched by life hand of his beautiful wife. Right on the outstretched palm, there was resting a fine golden thread.

“What is it?”

“A blonde hair.”

The man smiled under his nose, recognising the altered words, and closed his book, putting it away before he stood up. “Oh?” he asked.

“My _last_ blonde hair.”

“It looks more like gray.”

Jess finally returned the smile. The gesture created a pair of adorable laugh wrinkles that Sam adored more than anything. “It's blonde,” she said softly.

Sam chuckled and opened his arms, pulling his wife into a delicate embrace. He paid a special attention to not squeezing any near her back since it had hurt her earlier that day.  
He had heard Jessica's words, slightly changed in the past, tens of years ago, when she'd unknowingly started carrying their child, and yet they felt different.

He knew exactly why they did. They didn't mean fear and uncertainty. No, they were covered in _Look. I grew old with you. We grew old together. I was not afraid and I'm not afraid still_.

Both of them offered each other a long, wonderful life, full of fulfilled plans, little and big happiness, tears and laughter, the warmth of the other person's body, the sound of the walls of their house still echoing sometimes with the sound of their children arguing with each other.

Speaking of which, Mary and her two younger siblings along with their own families were expected to show up later that day to celebrate the end of the week. Both Sam and Jess were crazy about their grandchildren.

“I love you,” the man whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to his lover's temple. It meant _I can't imagine my life without you_.

To which Jess replied with “I love you, too,” meaning _I know. Me, too_.

(After a moment, Sam pulled away and raised one of his completely gray eyebrows. “So... Should I buy a casket now?” He asked, making his voice sound serious.

Jessica snorted at that and poked him against his ribs. “Shut up.”)


End file.
